{"id":24101,"date":"2026-04-29T04:19:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/24101\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:19:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T04:19:05","slug":"my-favourite-hood-kirk-and-genevieve-mclean-on-downtown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/24101\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favourite ‘Hood: Kirk and Genevieve McLean on Downtown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve been fortunate enough (or unfortunate enough, depending on the season) to take in a Canucks game from one of the high-level suites at Rogers Arena, you\u2019ve likely run into former goalie Kirk McLean and his wife, Genevieve. From his time with the Canucks in the \u201990s, the \u2019tender is best known for \u201cThe Save\u201d. He also had one of the more iconic equipment setups in Vancouver hockey history. These days he surveys the stadium in a suit jacket as an official team ambassador, meeting with fans and sponsors and taking part in the festivities.<\/p>\n

Genevieve, an advertising sales executive as well as a board member of the Michael Cuccione Foundation, is often at his side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got traded here in \u201987 and I never looked back,\u201d says Kirk, who is originally from Toronto, over breakfast at Cafe Medina. \u201cAnd when I got traded away, I\u2019d still come back here in the summers. It was pretty easy to fall in love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he still gets recognized on the street here, Genevieve cuts in: \u201cEvery day. I\u2019m almost just waiting for it to happen here. It\u2019s surprising because he wore a mask. But then you see how much he does for the team and the city\u2014hospital visits, charities\u2014and it makes sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

How long have you lived in the neighbourhood?<\/p>\n

GM: About seven years.<\/p>\n

What do you love about it?<\/p>\n

KM: Everything is so close. That\u2019s the great thing about Downtown. Wherever you may be, it\u2019s easy access anywhere, and you can put the car in the garage and walk
everywhere, which we do. We don\u2019t pull the vehicle out unless it\u2019s for work purposes or we\u2019re heading out to the other side of the bridge. And in the summer we\u2019ll just take the bikes.<\/p>\n

Favourite places<\/p>\n

GM: Hello Nori, we love. Hand-rolled sushi. And then we\u2019re big into dim sum\u2014Kirin and Pink Pearl.<\/p>\n

KM: We\u2019re old school, we like everything. We can go from Original Joe\u2019s to Elisa or Blue Water. There are so many choices.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m often found at\u2026<\/p>\n

KM: I\u2019m a big music guy. There\u2019s nothing better than the Commodore or the Orpheum or a big show at Rogers. I was just looking at David Byrne tickets at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre.<\/p>\n

Best recent purchase<\/p>\n

GM: Foot rubs at Yuen. We do a lot of foot rubs; they\u2019re really great.<\/p>\n

Underrated gem<\/p>\n

GM: The Dirty Apron. Most people think of it as a cooking school, which is a great
experience. But it\u2019s really good for stopping by, too.<\/p>\n

KM: Lupo. An Italian place that\u2019s in an old house down from the fire station. It\u2019s been around a long time and it really is a gem.<\/p>\n

Thing you\u2019d change<\/p>\n

GM: Better transit systems to get people in and around the city. If I wanted to get over to English Bay, it isn\u2019t easy to jump on a bus to do that. There\u2019s nothing new. It\u2019s gotten better with the Lime [scooters]; I love those, and they help a lot. And it is mostly walkable. But I think it needs to be a bit easier to get people in and out of places.<\/p>\n

Popular misconceptions<\/p>\n

GM: People think that all the good restaurants are on Alberni, or in Yaletown. But any place you go into neighbourhood wise, Gastown, Coal Harbour, there are Michelin spots everywhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Favourite quiet spot<\/p>\n

KM: Early in the morning we\u2019ll go for a walk and sit outside Delany\u2019s with our coffees. It\u2019s still early enough that it\u2019s quiet there.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Get the best of Vancouver in your inbox, every Tuesday and Thursday.\u00a0Sign up for our free newsletter. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[415,17,412,413,418,407,414,420,416,423,226,389,419,422,421,417,95],"class_list":{"0":"post-24101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vancouver","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-city","11":"tag-culture","12":"tag-dining","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-events","15":"tag-fashion","16":"tag-film","17":"tag-food","18":"tag-lifestyle","19":"tag-music","20":"tag-nightlife","21":"tag-restaurants","22":"tag-shopping","23":"tag-tv","24":"tag-vancouver"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}